Volume 2
Side Story 2
Hand Games,
Confused by the Shadow Treading Demon
Translator : PolterGlast
―In 3999, in the middle of July, in the northern part
of Kokuten Province, Samidare Territory.
"What's going
on!?"
The door to the branch
manager's office of Chidjiwa Lumber Trading creaked with a heavy sound and
uncontrollable anger.
There, scattered on
the customer service table, were several reports and Chidjiwa Kaede, who was
breathing heavily.
"This, and that,
why the investigation hasn't progressed at all!?"
The fact that the
investigation of Akira's whereabouts had run into a dead end beyond her initial
expectations was the reason why Kaede was in a state of rage.
"...... Even if
you ask me, I feel confused as well."
An elderly man, who
looked like a manager, stood by the wall, wiping the greasy sweat from his
forehead, and defended himself.
"I have been
visiting Ugetsu mansion at least once a month. And I have met many members of
the family, but I am not acquainted with the person who calls himself
Akira-sama. The head of Ugetsu's family introduced Ugetsu Souma to me as his
eldest son, and I assumed that he really was ......"
"~~............!!
~! ........................Ha~a."
She managed to resist
the urge to yell at him and sat down on the couch.
It had been almost a
week since Kaede and Sonomi had set foot in Haraku, the capital of Ugetsu's
territory, and they had been searching for Akira's whereabouts for some time
now.
Naturally, during that
time, the investigation and search had continued without a break, but there had
been no hint of Akira's whereabouts.
They tried talking to
the citizens walking around them, but as far as they could gather, no
information had surfaced.
Well, that was to be
expected.
For the citizens, no
matter who their lord is, there is not much change in their daily lives.
At best, they would
know that their lord's surname is Ugetsu or that his name is Tenzan.
However, Chidjiwa
Lumber is a large, long-established business, even without Kaede's influence,
who is the granddaughter of a direct descendant of the owner. Furthermore, the
Samidare cedar is a specialty of this territory, and even Ugetsu would not want
to let go of Chidjiwa Lumber Co.
In fact, the elderly
branch manager standing by the wall said that he visited the mansion at least
once a month.
He must have many
opportunities to be introduced to the family, and there is no way he wouldn't
know of Akira's existence.
"Speaking of
things that bother me, this is one of them."
She unfolded the
newspaper placed in front of the couch.
It is a quarterly
newspaper of the capital, which was obtained with great difficulty and
circulated at the beginning of the year going back several years in the past.
There, she found a
greeting from the lord, Ugetsu Tensan, and a photo of his family.
At least, only Ugetsu
Tenzan, his wife Sanae, and Souma were in the photos from the past three years.
"It is as if
Akira-sama had never existed from the very beginning. What is the head of
Ugetsu thinking?"
She had never expected
the investigation to be so difficult, and she felt a fatigue that she couldn't
hide.
Although she had never
exchanged personal words with Tenzan, she remembered the impressions left by
his face and voice as he had visited once every six months at the side of the
former head of Gioin and the current head, Shizumi, and listened to their
conversations.
Although he seemed to
have an honest personality through his seasonal greetings and routine reports,
she was surprised that he would always raise his eyebrows in a sour manner
whenever Shizumi asked him about Akira's recent situation and lamented that he
was an ordinary fool who could not even master the education necessary to
become the head of the family.
She had heard from
Shizumi that Akira was able to create a regeneration talisman at the age of 10,
so she only thought that he had been trained very hard, but now there were too
many strange things about him.
"―Kaede-ojōsama. Regarding
Akira-sama's case, it is more difficult than one might imagine to arrange a
person's disappearance. How about starting with something that can never be
faked?"
Kaede could guess what
the branch manager, who seemed to have made up his mind, was going to suggest.
Why don't we contact
the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and check Akira's soul stone? That's what
he was suggesting.
"That's our last
resort. If we were to contact the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, there is a
possibility that a report would be sent to Hisashi, not to mention Ugetsu. It
was only thanks to the hard work of the people at Gioin that we were able to
keep Akira's existence from being revealed to the others. I would like to avoid
creating an opening for the other provinces to interfere because of my
arbitrary decision."
"―My apologies,
for being so thoughtless."
"...... More
importantly, where's Sonomi?"
Suddenly, she realized
that her partner, with whom she was working together, was nowhere to be seen.
She was too absorbed
in the task of tracing the information.
"If it's
Sonomi-sama, she said she would be heading to an upper-class junior high school
on the outskirts of the city. Most of the nobles in Samidare Territory choose
one of two options, either to Tenryo Academy in Hisashi Province or to go
there."
A~a. Kaede let out a
satisfied sigh.
She remembered that
the last letter from Akira did not contain any good information, but it said
that he had entered a junior high school.
In response to the
fact that Ugetsu Souma entered the junior high school of Tenryou Academy this
year, it was mentioned that Akira had decided not to go on to Tenryou Academy
in order to concentrate on the education of the head of the family.
"I agree. I guess
we have to start from the part where there is no room for deceit. Since
Sonomi-san is going to school, let's work on another approach. Branch Manager.
Yesterday, you went to Ugetsu's mansion, right? Did something catch your
attention?"
"...... It's not
really something that bothers me, but there seemed to be a commotion going on
there."
"Did something
happen?"
"No, nothing like
that. Rather, they seem to be in a merry atmosphere, and are preparing a
banquet."
"............ A
banquet!?"
"Yes. From the
looks of it, people will probably gather there this weekend."
"What is going on
here? Considering they are plotting a rebellion, they are hardly being
vigilant, and to on top of that, they are having a banquet. Are they making fun
of us!?"
"M-My
apologies!"
She couldn't help but
yell at him, but in reality, the branch manager is not to be blamed.
He opened his mouth to
speak further, but on second thought, he grabbed the teacup on the tabletop and
slurped down a cup of lukewarm green tea in one gulp.
"............
Branch Manager. Can we sneak into that banquet?"
"It seemed to be
held privately,............, but I'll try to make some arrangements."
"Please."
After seeing off the
branch manager who left the room as if to run away, Kaede once again looked
downward at the documents that had been gathered.
She had gathered a
fair amount of documents, and the ones that still needed to be looked over were
piling up on the tabletop, waiting for Kaede to come to them.
――――――――――――――――
While Kaede was at the
Chidjiwa Lumber Company with her head in her hands, her companion, Sonomi, was
hurrying toward Chidjiwa Lumber Company to meet up with Kaede, not even trying
to hide her confusion.
The harvest at the
only upper-class junior high school in Haraku was a disappointment to her
expectations, as it ended up being completely fruitless.
Not wanting to go home
empty-handed, she decided to hold on until the very last minute and try to
trace back the records from the second-year students to the first-year
students, but to begin with, the records were from an upper-class junior high
school where the number of students was strictly controlled.
Despite her best
efforts, the results were nothing but futile.
Then, in desperation,
she went to the upper-class elementary school, but found no record of Akira
there either.
―It's as if Akira-sama had never existed from the
beginning.
How far does Ugetsu
want to hide Akira?
She swallowed an
exasperated curse in her mouth.
She felt she was
missing something, but she didn't know what it was.
In the midsummer heat,
she realized that her thinking had become too simplistic.
―Let's think about it.
First of all, the fact
that Akira's records could not be traced was not due to Ugetsu's manipulation
of information.
It would be much
better to use the excess energy for external negotiations than to go through
all this trouble, and there was no reason to do so.
―In other words, the reason why there are no records at
the upper-class junior high school is not because Ugetsu manipulated the
information,
"It's just a
result of something, huh ......?"
The question is, the
result of what?
Carving inferences out
of assumptions with the razor blade of reality.
Simply, clearly,
purify the thought.
Believe that what
remains is called fact.
After a few moments,
Sonomi muttered the last remaining conclusion in a daze.
"Akira-sama never
attended school in the first place?"
*Shiver*. Such a
conclusion sent a shiver down her spine.
The chill that even
the heat couldn't cover up made Sonomi stand still.
"...... But,
Shizumi-sama told me that Akira-sama attended a school. At the very least, she
was sure that he received a basic education that was not given to him by his
tutor. ―If that were the case, I'm sure he attended an upper-class elementary
school."
She desperately tried
to enumerate the negative factors, but once the suspicion floated in her mind,
it stuck to the back of her thoughts without disappearing.
The only upper-class
elementary school in Samidare Territory is the one she visited earlier.
However, the school's
headmaster had assured her that the only child of Ugetsu's in the past few
years was Ugetsu Souma.
The records also
confirmed this, so she could rely on that.
"Is it perhaps an
upper-class elementary school outside the territory ......? No, there is no
reason to send him out of the territory, and it would be troublesome for Ugetsu
to have the existence of Akira-sama known to the other territories. Is that
perhaps not the case?"
Assume and deny.
But she couldn't find
any assumptions that she could be sure of.
"As expected, we
don't have enough information. I hope Kaede has found something."
Sonomi shelved her
conclusion due to the lack of information and raised her gaze.
At that moment, with a
cheer that blew away the heat, a group of boys in linen kimonos ran past
Sonomi.
Boys of eight years
old or so competed with each other by stepping on each other's shadows.
It was one of the
classic games, shadow-stepping demons.
Apparently, they were
playing with an unusual rule: if they were stepped on by an ogre, the players
would switch sides.
Children repeatedly
step on the black shadows cast by the summer sun.
The children were
enjoying themselves, and Sonomi watched them with a weary emotion.
The boys' feet stepped
into the dancing shadows as though they were stabbing after the passing
moments.
It's just like what
happened to her now.
The self-deprecating
thought made Sonomi smiled bitterly.
Sonomi chases after the
shadow of Akira.
The only difference is
that the shadow is tangible, but has no substance, and although Akira was
definitely existent, his shadow could not be stepped on either.
No, it was not Akira
who was being chased.
The shadow is the
basic education that Akira had received.
Although she was
chasing him, she was chasing more than one shadow.
―Is it only natural that I lose sight of Akira-sama?
A thought that boiled
in the summer heat whispered an escape from reality.
Throwing herself from resignation,
she took a step forward. Ahead of her feet, the shadows of the boys danced,
―Wait. What did I think just now?
The possibility that
had never even been an option in the first place stopped Sonomi's steps once
again.
What she was chasing
was the shadow of Akira's basic education.
In other words, as
long as it's a basic education its fine.
"............ Hello
there, boys."
Desperately
suppressing the tone of her voice, which was about to tremble, Sonomi called
out to the boys who were all excited.
"What is
it~?"
"―You idiot!
She's a princess of a noble family!!"
In response to the
youngest child's carefree reply, the oldest boy scolded him, changing his
expression to one of bloodlust.
Lower your head. While
whispering so, he held the heads of the young ones, and bowed his own head in a
poor gesture of courtesy.
"W-We're sorry.
For making a scene in front of the princess. We'll leave immediately.
......"
"It's okay. I'm
sorry I stopped you while you were playing. ―I just have a quick question to
ask you, is that okay?"
"Y-Yes."
One does not often
have the opportunity in one's lifetime to have a direct conversation with a
high ranking member of the nobility.
The boys were so tense
that they would not lift their eyes to look at her.
"Hey~, do you
know that mountain?"
After she pointed to
Mt. Rengyō and asked with a smile, one of the younger boys responded.
"I know. It's the
mountain where the lord lives!"
"Yup, correct!
You know very well."
She nodded her head
with a smile on her face.
Is it summer vacation
now? How are your studies going?
She asked a series of
easy-to-answer questions to relieve the tension.
When the boys were no
longer nervous, she asked them the core question, pretending that nothing was
wrong.
"―Hey, is there
an elementary school near that mountain?"
――――――――――――――――
TIPS: About Schools.
In the era in which
Akira and the others live, there are two main types of schools.
Public common schools
attended by commoners, and upper-class schools, which are private schools attended
by the elite, including wealthy families.
Since the values that
parents demand for their children are completely different between these two
schools, they are sorted by wealth.
Naturally, both Sonomi
and Kaede attended the upper-class school, so they subconsciously excluded the
option of the common school.
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